Project S:
Health and sanitation issues are one of the primary causes of untimely death and disease in Bangladesh.
Absence of proper facilities and unhygienic sanitation systems spread bacteria and pollute water bodies,
which in turn infect agricultural areas and households. The lack of proper education on hygiene issues causes poor health.
Drishtipat Canada believes that access to proper sanitation facilities is a basic human right. A great number of villages
in rural Bangladesh are suffering due to unhygienic waste systems. While NGO's and other organizations involved in social
work have addressed this problem in some areas of Bangladesh, there is still a vast majority that would benefit from our input.
The target group was pre-determined as poverty-inflicted areas in Bangladesh where Drishtipat Canada found local volunteers willing to assist in
community based development work. Hence, a rural area of Chittagong and a sub-urban area in Rajshahi were chosen to
serve as our launching positions. We will use a similar format to start off the Project in both cities.
Drishtipat Canada intends to raise awareness amongst the residents of the chosen areas on the necessity of maintaining a sanitary and
healthy lifestyle. In the initial stages, DP Canada plans on putting together training material to help local volunteers provide information
sessions to the community in the chosen areas. These training sessions will serve as part of the" awareness campaigns. Training information
will include facts on clean drinking water, kitchen & food etiquettes and sanitary toilet facilities.
Once enough interest is generated among the local community members, up to 5 families in each area will be chosen randomly by the volunteers, as recipients
of the newly sanitation systems built. These systems will consist of a complete sanitary toilet. Prior to installation of these systems, the families must
agree to spread the word about the benefits of having
proper toilet systems. DP Canada will provide the majority of funds for the first set of toilets built in this area. The recipient families will also
be required to contribute minimal financial amounts and some physical labor towards this project.
The Goal:
Throughout the length of the project, the local community volunteers will provide constant supervision and support to all residents on the healthy living.
The chosen group of families will serve as test cases, and based on the success of the project at that stage, DP Canada will move forward to the second
round with other members of the community. The ultimate goal will be to attract the local authority and influential people of the area,
through our success and work. DP Canada eventually wants these influential residents to take over the project,
and be responsible community leaders in continuing the process of building sanitary facilities for all families in their area.
Hopefully, the accomplishments of this project can serve as a model for other areas of Bangladesh under similar situations.
DP Canada will consider this project to be a success when the recipients of the sanitation facilities will be totally self sufficient in
using the facilities appropriately (i.e. the members of the recipient families will completely stop open defecation, and will maintain basic hygenic practices
while cooking and drinking water).
Brief updates about Project S will be provided from time to time on this page, as information becomes available from our partners volunteering on site.
Current Progress:
Project S has made excellent progress over the past few months! In May 2007 we were able to work with the first group of chosen families and build 6 sanitary toilets for 6 families! The families all worked together along with our field volunteers in arranging for the toilet building process. Although there were some initial restraints in terms of locals not wanting to adapt to a new healthy lifestyle, our volunteers spent months relentlessly trying to demonstrate how this could benefit the locals. Eventually the volunteers succeeded, and the first 6 'leader' families were chosen by the community to initiate the process. The first phase of implementation has since been completed. These 6 families are now working with a few more families in the village trying to teach them about how their lives could be changed also! The second phase implementation of sanitary toilets for Project S will start at the end of 2007, and will continue through to February 2008. Drishtipat Canada hopes to achieve total sanitation in this village with a successful completion of Project S! Updates will be provided as avaiable!
An initial fund raising held during the launch of DP Canada, as well as personal donations by DP Canada members have been providing the financial support for building the
sanitarytoilets. In the future, funds will be raised as necessary. The second set of toilets will be built between end of 2007 and February 2008. Stay tuned for updates and pictures of
the process, and brief bios of the chosen families!
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